Book Review: Susanne Abel’s Gretchen
It’s not often that the second volume of a duology is as captivating as the first. Susanne Abel has achieved this with her two novels Stay Away from Gretchen and What I Never Said. While the first story focuses on the protagonist Greta from East Prussia, the second volume revolves around the fate of her husband Konrad and an inherited war trauma that slowly unravels. Even though I find the love story between Greta’s son Tom and his Jenny a bit too cheesy, both books are highly worth reading. Especially for the post-war generation, to which I also belong.
A good acquaintance had drawn my attention to the book with the strange title Stay Away from Gretchen and lent it to me. It lay on my nightstand for quite a while. Other books had been waiting for my attention longer, so Gretchen had to wait. Then, during the Christmas holidays, it was finally time. And indeed, I believe the novel can have quite a different effect depending on the reader. As the daughter of a generation of parents, both of whom were shaped by the effects of World War II in their own ways, what moved me in the book wasn’t so much the racism and bigotry in post-war Germany. No, it was rather the parallels between my mother’s life and the fictional Greta’s. Both the description of the escape from East Prussia and the time spent in the refugee camp, and later with the farmer who looks down on the refugees and only cares about his own well-being, particularly touched me. I will never be able to fully comprehend what it must have meant to live in constant fear for one’s life, never knowing if one would survive the next day or evening. To be harassed or even raped by Russian soldiers. And then, having nothing but the bare life saved, to be unwanted again because no one wants to share their meager rations with the refugees.
On the Run
A good acquaintance had drawn my attention to the book with the strange title Stay Away from Gretchen and lent it to me. It lay on my nightstand for quite a while. Other books had been waiting for my attention longer, so Gretchen had to wait. Then, during the Christmas holidays, it was finally time. And indeed, I believe the novel can have quite a different effect depending on the reader. As the daughter of a generation of parents, both of whom were shaped by the effects of World War II in their own ways, what moved me in the book wasn’t so much the racism and bigotry in post-war Germany. No, it was rather the parallels between my mother’s life and the fictional Greta’s. Both the description of the escape from East Prussia and the time spent in the refugee camp, and later with the farmer who looks down on the refugees and only cares about his own well-being, particularly touched me. I will never be able to fully comprehend what it must have meant to live in constant fear for one’s life, never knowing if one would survive the next day or evening. To be harassed or even raped by Russian soldiers. And then, having nothing but the bare life saved, to be unwanted again because no one wants to share their meager rations with the refugees.
Greta
The post-war years are also a terrible time. Full of deprivation and dominated by the thought of where the next meal will come from or how to keep the apartment warm in the biting cold of a harsh winter. Then, in the middle of this bleak period, Greta, her mother, her grandfather, and his wife stay with relatives in Heidelberg. The city seems almost surreal, as it experienced almost no destruction during the war. However, since March 30, 1945, Heidelberg had been occupied by American troops. This very circumstance becomes Greta’s downfall. She falls in love with a Black GI. Relationships, illegitimate children, and marriages were common in the post-war years. It is said that there were 12,000–13,000 such relationships between German women and the occupying powers. It’s important to know that until the end of 1946, there was a marriage ban! Needless to say, “German society” was not very tolerant of these culturally mixed marriages. However, if the result was a mixed-race illegitimate child, the consequences for the couple were particularly dramatic. Neither the German nor the American side really wanted these children.
The Brown Baby Plan tells the painful story that Greta must experience on behalf of many other German women. The child, named Marie, is taken away from her. She is placed in an orphanage. What happens afterward, or where Marie later ends up, Greta never learns herself. It’s only her son Tom who brings the truth to light and actually finds Marie in the USA. However, by that time, his mother is already suffering from dementia and can only partially understand what has really happened over the years.
Konrad
In What I Never Said, the story mainly revolves around Greta’s husband and Tom’s father, Konrad. He already plays a small part in the first book of the duology. We learn that he first meets Greta at her relatives’ house in Heidelberg. During their next meeting, he saves her from drowning after Marie is taken away from her.
Konrad’s suffering during World War II is told in more detail than Greta’s. In short, Konrad loses his entire family during this time. His father dies young, his brother doesn’t return from the war. His disabled sister is tortured to death by the Nazis through experiments. His mother dies in a bombing raid. By some miracle, Konrad survives the catastrophe. As a prisoner of war, he finds himself in the southern United States at the end of the fighting.
When he returns to Germany, he learns that his father’s brother is still alive but in Russian captivity. Konrad goes to Heidelberg; from his uncle, he had heard that a friend of his lives there. This person, like Konrad’s uncle, is a doctor. Konrad also studies medicine and, as mentioned earlier, meets Greta. Due to his traumatic losses from the war, he focuses entirely on his wife and hopes for a new family.
Although Greta, in turn, has never overcome the loss of Bob, her American lover, and the loss of her child, she decides to start anew with Konrad. However, their marriage is overshadowed by the war trauma of both spouses. After many years, Greta finally becomes pregnant again, and Tom is born. Born into a marriage of two traumatized people who try to forget their past, their son becomes a victim of transgenerational trauma.
The narrative jumps back and forth between Tom’s parents’ past and the present. Gradually, the full extent of the terrible experiences and their consequences becomes clear to the reader. Tom becomes aware of many of his own learned behaviors. And, he is fortunate to meet a healer, that is, someone with a secure attachment style.
There are many more twists and turns, many surprising developments that I won’t go into here. My concern, however, is something else. Namely, what war does to us. Not only to the people directly affected but also to the following generations who must carry the consequences. From personal experience, I can say that the traumatic experiences of World War II were never processed. The survivors were simply left alone with their fate. Reconstruction and the economic miracle were at the top of the agenda – how the individual coped with their emotional trauma was of no interest. The important thing was that things moved forward and “people” functioned again.
And apparently, humanity has learned nothing from these catastrophic years. We are constantly confronted with “history repeating itself.” Whether it’s the senseless war in Ukraine or the ongoing conflict between Palestine and Israel. As long as the hostilities continue, there is coverage. Once they are over, no one cares about the war generation and its successors anymore. Then, it’s all about reconstruction and economic success. But there’s one catch: The soul forgets nothing if the emotions are not released.
